The Ansar Allah Houthi group cuts off a vital supply route to the city of Taiz and a mutual military escalation

The Ansar Allah Houthi group cut off a vital supply road linking the main city of Taiz in southwestern Yemen and the city of Aden, where the internationally recognized government is based, according to what Agence France-Presse reported from security sources and eyewitnesses on Sunday.

Government military sources and eyewitnesses said, "The Houthis were able to cut off the Taiz-Aden road and impose a siege on Taiz after days of fighting." They confirmed that the Houthis were able to "reach the Al-Samsara and Al-Safiya line, cut off the road and stop movement."

Meanwhile, eyewitnesses spoke of “strong battles” on this main line that connects the city of Taiz to the cities of Lahj and Aden.

Likewise, a Taiz police source stated that “we were informed that the Al-Safiya area had fallen into the hands of the Houthis, that the main road had been cut off, and that they had taken control of the police station” in the area.

This comes after the Yemeni Armed Forces said early Sunday that they had carried out strikes against the Iran-aligned Houthis in the capital, Sanaa, and the group's stronghold in Saada.

A Yemeni army spokesman said that the forces were targeting what he described as “vital targets,” without providing further details.

Al-Masirah TV, affiliated with the Ansar Allah Houthi group, reported early on Sunday that Saudi Arabia had launched an attack on the capital, Sanaa.

The channel quoted the Houthi Ministry of Health as saying that a Saudi air attack on “Al-Ahyuq Junction in Al-Wazi’iyah District in Taiz Governorate has resulted in two deaths and two injuries” so far.

There has been no confirmation yet from the Saudi side.

The Ansar Allah group accused Saudi Arabia of launching 26 air strikes on the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, on Saturday, while the Yemeni army affiliated with the internationally recognized government announced the implementation of an operation against military targets in the city, while the group announced that it had targeted an Aramco facility in Riyadh with ballistic missiles and drones, after a fire was seen in the company’s refinery south of the Saudi capital.

The group's Al-Masirah channel reported that Saudi aircraft targeted Sanaa with 26 raids, without providing details about the targeted sites or human losses. Agence France-Presse reported that there were strong explosions and warplanes firing missiles at the city.

For his part, the spokesman for the Yemeni army, Colonel Majid Al-Nuzaili, said that the army carried out an operation against what he described as “vital and legitimate military targets” in Sanaa, according to the government’s Saba news agency.

On Saturday evening, the Ansar Allah group announced that it had targeted an Aramco facility in Riyadh with ballistic missiles and drones.

The group's military spokesman, Yahya Saree, said that its forces carried out a large-scale military operation using a number of ballistic missiles and drones, and described the strikes as "accurate and direct," adding that they caused fires to break out in the targeted sites.

On Saturday afternoon, Agence France-Presse reported that flames and smoke were rising from Aramco’s Riyadh refinery south of the capital, and that firefighting teams were trying to put out the fire, while ambulances and police were stationed near the facility.

But the spokesman for the military coalition to support the government in Yemen, Turki Al-Maliki, said in statements reported by the Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat on Sunday that the Houthis’ talk about targeting Riyadh on Saturday is “misleading.”

Al-Maliki told the London-based newspaper, “What the Houthis are exposed to in Taiz and the human losses of the group’s members... on all fronts, make them look for imaginary victories.”

Last week, the Ansar Allah group announced that it had targeted Aramco facilities in Yanbu with missiles and drones. Saudi Arabia said at the time that it intercepted six ballistic missiles launched by the group towards Taif and the Yanbu region, without announcing any damage to the company’s facilities.

Al-Masirah TV also reported, on Saturday, that the communications network in Saada Governorate, northwest of Yemen, was targeted by missile strikes.

These developments come after Reuters quoted regional and Western officials that Saudi Arabia is planning to launch an attack on the Ansar Allah group in the coming weeks, led by Yemeni forces on the ground with support from Saudi air strikes.

The Civil Defense said, early Saturday, that the missile was intercepted in Ahad Rufaidah Governorate in the Asir region, south of the Kingdom, and that its fragments injured a person.

This came the day after the Saudi authorities announced that a projectile fired by the Ansar Allah group had fallen on a school in the city of Najran, bordering Yemen, causing material damage. The Civil Defense published pictures that it said showed the damage to the school.

On Friday, the Saudi-led military coalition announced the interception and destruction of four ballistic missiles launched by the Ansar Allah group towards Khamis Mushait, while the group accused Riyadh of carrying out dozens of air and missile strikes on areas under its control in Yemen.

In conjunction with the military escalation, Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said that Iran had proposed political engagement with the Ansar Allah group, and that a committee affiliated with the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement would discuss the proposal in an emergency meeting in Riyadh next week, as an alternative to military action.

Reuters quoted six people familiar with the preparations as saying that Yemeni forces supervised by Riyadh would lead the operation on the ground, with support from Saudi air strikes.

They said that one of the main goals of the operation is to stop the rapid gains made by the Ansar Allah group last month, when it advanced on the coast and took control of the Bab al-Mandab Strait area.